Pollution from plastic bags puts our planet in a perilous position

Hang on for a minute...we're trying to find some more stories you might like.

Email This Story

Send email to this addressEnter Your NameAdd a comment hereVerification

If you like eating fish, you should be more careful of what you put in the water. Fish are in trouble because plastic bags in the ocean release toxins, which pollute their ecosystem. We should think about charging for plastic bags because sea creatures have died from plastic bag pollution. Americans misuse a lot of plastic bags and citizens would use fewer plastic bags if they were charged for it. Sea creatures have died because of the plastic bags we leave behind.

Americans misuse a lot of plastic bags per year. An average American family uses 1,500 plastic bags per year and most of those plastic bags are not recycled. According to a news report from NBC news in 2009, Washington, D.C. residents were using more than 22 million plastic bags per month. A five cent tax was added to each plastic bag and the residents of the District of Columbia started using fewer plastic bags; usage went down from 22 million plastic bags to three million plastic bags per month.

An article by Claire Le Guern posted on coastalcare.org clearly states that sea creatures have died from plastic bags pollution. Scientists have observed that 60% to 95% of underwater mammals, like dolphins, have a piece of plastic attached to their body.